CC points on a per person basis mean little, as an aggregate mean much. The average person if they make the initial bonus rarely 5that much more in terms of solid miles after that. So if they earn that 50, 80, 100k, whatever award after their minimum spend, they rarely earn enough with enough frequency to keep hitting enough miles/points to easily get there again. Not everyone is a FT'er! However when adding up the 10's of millions of people also earning points, in aggregate it looks like a big problem. This is NOT solely a US craziness. Every Turk that I know over a certain economic level has a miles earning card in Turkey for example. The big issue for TK, is that with a 3 year sunset they limit their hard limit on how many people can play this game. The only big difference with the US cards is that their miles are "banked" before use, and operate outside the TK expiration policy, which is ridiculous as someone with a Citicard bonus of 100k miles has more flexibility timewise in using their miles than a regular TK FF who earn BIS miles the old fashioned way.